bustle

bustle¹ to be noisily busy; the activity

Etymology

The verb to be busy is inherited from Middle English bustelen (“to thrash about, move vigorously but blunderingly”),^[2][3][4] whose origin is disputed.^[5][6] The OED takes it as probably of two sources: partly the older verb bust with a frequentative suffix, and partly a variant of the obsolete verb buskle, a frequentative of busk.^[6] The MED and Barnhart likewise build it on bisten (“to thrash, beat”).^[2][3] Barnhart adds bresten (“to rush, break”), from Old English berstan, and a Scandinavian source, comparing Old Norse beysta (“to beat”).^[3] Merriam-Webster, Hoad, Collins, Weekley and Partridge prefer buskle or call it likely,^{[7][8][9][10][11]} with busk going back to Old Norse búask (“to make oneself ready”);^[8][9][11] Hoad adds that the modern verb is not certainly identical with the medieval one.^[8] Etymonline suggests a frequentative of bresten influenced by the Norse verb, or buskle.^[5] Dictionary.com compares busla (“to splash about”),^[4] and Johnson guessed that it came from busy.^[12] The noun is from the verb.^{[5][3][13][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

To move or work vigorously but aimlessly, now obsolete: about 1350, in the poem Of alle þe witti, of a boy on a bell rope.^[2][6][3] Etymonline dates bustling, noisy or excited activity, to the early 15th century and the verb only to the 1570s,^[5] and Merriam-Webster gives 1548 for the verb's main sense.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The medieval sense of blundering vigour gave way to fussy, noisy activity, recorded from about 1450,^[6] and in the 16th century the verb gained transitive uses: to rouse someone (before 1555) and to hurry a person along (1575).^[6] Shakespeare's Richard III has the command "bustle, bustle",^[12] the OED's first record of the imperative "hurry up".^[6] From 1585 to 1763 it could also mean to struggle or scuffle.^[6] The noun followed the same path: it first meant a conflict or fray, recorded by the OED from 1562 to 1898 and by Merriam-Webster from 1579,^[6][7] and the now usual sense of noisy activity comes from Milton's Comus, which the OED dates to 1637 and Barnhart to 1634.^[6][3] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a tumult; a hurry; a combustion".^[12] From 1774 a place could bustle, that is, be full of activity.^[6] In criminal slang bustle was money from 1763 to the mid 19th century,^[6][14] and the verb meant to thieve from 1789 and to confuse from 1870.^[14] In Yorkshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire dialect it meant to go off quickly or to drive away, and in Herefordshire the noun was a scolding.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – to move or work vigorously but aimlessly (now obsolete).^[2][6]
• c. 1450 – to be fussily or noisily active.^[6] Merriam-Webster dates this to 1548.^[7]
• before 1555 – to rouse or stir a person.^[6]
• 1562 – noun, a conflict or scuffle (obsolete by 1898).^[6]
• 1575 – to hurry a person along.^[6]
• 1585 – to struggle, to contend (obsolete by 1763).^[6]
• 1637 – noun, noisy activity and movement, in Milton.^[6] Barnhart has 1634.^[3]
• 1763 – noun, money, in cant (obsolete by 1848).^[6]
• 1774 – of a place, to be full of activity.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move about energetically and often noisily; to make a show of being busy: The nurse bustled along the ward.^[9][7][6]
2. Of a place, to be full of people or activity; to teem: The harbour bustled with fishing boats.^[7][6][13]
3. To make someone hurry; to hustle: They bustled the visitors out of the room.^[9][7][6]
4. To struggle or contend (obsolete, 1585–1763).^[6][7][13]

Noun

1. Noisy, energetic activity; fuss or commotion: the hustle and bustle of the market.^[9][7][6]
2. A conflict or scuffle (obsolete, 1562–1898).^[6][7][13]
3. Money, in criminals' slang (obsolete, 1763–1848).^[6][13][14]

Word family

• bustler
• bustling
• bustlingly
• unbustling

bustle² pad under a skirt

Etymology

The pad under a skirt is of disputed origin.^[5] Merriam-Webster, the Shorter Oxford, Hoad, Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English call it of unknown origin,^{[7][13][8][9][16]} and Klein and Dictionary.com of uncertain origin.^[17][4] The OED takes it as apparently a sense of the noun bustle¹,^[6] and Barnhart as perhaps a special use of that noun, for something that makes a stir or fuss.^[3] Etymonline suggests either a use with reference to a "rustling motion" or German Büschel (“bunch, pad”),^[5] and Weekley thought the German word probable, a diminutive of Bausch (“pad, bolster”), connecting it with the visit of a German duchess to London in 1783.^[10] Partridge derives it from a person bustling along.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stuffed pad or wire frame under a woman's skirt: 1786, in a letter of A. Adams of 18 July, in the OED's revised entry.^[6] Merriam-Webster gives 1782,^[7] and Barnhart and Etymonline 1788.^[3][5] Weekley reports the form bustler in the United States in 1787.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has stayed with the garment: Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms (1848) described a pad of cotton, feathers or bran that made the hips look rounder and the waist smaller, and the Century Dictionary noted that it also made the folds of a skirt hang well and kept the skirt from the feet.^[5] From 1824 there was a verb, to give a bustle or a bustle-like projection to.^[6] It extended to the part of the skirt that the pad pushed out,^[6] and to a later fashion modelled on it,^[7] while in American slang it has meant the buttocks since at least 1928.^[14]

Timeline

• 1786 – a stuffed pad or wire frame worn under a skirt.^[6] Merriam-Webster has 1782, and Barnhart 1788.^[7][3]
• 1824 – verb, to give a bustle to.^[6]
• 1928 – American slang, the buttocks.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A padded cushion or a frame, as of metal or whalebone, that held out the back of a woman's skirt in some former fashions (historical).^[7][13][6]
2. A later fashion modelled on this.^[7]

Word family

• bustled